JACK SHEPPARD. A Romance. (Collection of British Authors. Vol. 110)
Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1846. 1st edition, thus. Leather. 1st edition, thus (1st Continental Edition). A Very Good copy. 12mo., [Vol.1] 458; pp., illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece. Bound in quarter red leather and marbled paper boards, with title and volume on the five compartment spine in gilt. All edges marbled. Yellow end papers. Moderate shelf wear, mostly at the tips. Spine darkened, with wear along the joints. Text pages age-toning, with occasional spots of foxing and browning. Frontispiece with light damp staining in the fore-edge margin. Hinges very strong.
Jack Sheppard was serially published in Bentley's Miscellany from January 1839 until February 1840. The novel was intertwined with the history of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, which ran in the same publication from February 1837 to April 1839. Dickens, previously a friend of Ainsworth's, became distant from Ainsworth as a controversy brewed over the scandalous nature around Jack Sheppard, Oliver Twist, and other novels describing criminal life. The relationship dissolved between the two, and Dickens retired from the magazine as its editor and made way for Ainsworth to replace him as editor at the end of 1839. Very Good. Item #30852
Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz, German publisher, paid the English authors for the works his company published, and agreed to limit their sales of English-language books to the European continent. In 1841, Tauchnitz started his English-language editions, with the series "Collection Of British Authors". Although Tauchnitz's editions were authorized, and listed as the 'Copyright Edition', they were not protected from copyright infringement and he could offer no such protection to the authors he paid.
Price: $40.00